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TEST REPORT

Mediabox

NETGEAR
NeoTV TV200

Brings streaming services to your TV screen Comfortable software update Simple connection to WLAN network A geographic lockout blocks the use of many interesting services to users outside of the USA No single solution to log on to various Apps

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TEST REPORT

Mediabox

Music, HD Videos, YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, and More


Just like with many other streaming players, the NeoTV box also comes in an elegant, shiny black plastic housing. The relatively flat remote control unfortunately doesnt sit all too comfortably in your hands. This is due in large part to the sharp edges that run along the side of the rehelps the user set up his new NeoTV box. Afterwards the box performs an automatic scan for new software. Its nice that the manufacturer incorporated an automatic update into the initial installation, otherwise there might be some users that would simply

1. NeoTV's Main Menu start using their new NeoTV box with outdated software. Netgear has completely integrated an Apps concept into the NeoTV; all of its functions are available in the form of these mini programs. If you want to use the NeoTV to access current Hollywood blockbuster movies and exciting TV series and you happen to live outside of the USA, you will unfortunately be disappointed. The necessary services that would be used for this (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Cinema Now, Film Fresh, etc.) are available but come with a geographical lockout that advises users outside of the USA in a friendly but pointed manner that this content is not available to them. This leaves just a few programming packages with

mote control. On the other hand, though, the buttons have a nice tactile feedback and a smooth surface. To keep its weight as low as possible and still maintain its flat construction, Netgear decided to forego the use of AAA batteries and instead use two CR2032 button batteries. When turning on the box for the first time, a fourstep installation assistant

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2. Selecting the automatic standby time 3. The NeoTV box can connect to the Internet either via WiFi or with a cable 4. Manual SSID entry 5. The NeoTV Box's software is up to date. An Internet update is not necessary etc. 11. Searching for YouTube content 12. SpiritClips Network 13. YUPPTV offers Indian channels via the Internet 14. You have to pay for a subscription in order to use this service 15. Access to Google Picasa web albums 16. Twitter is also integrated into the NeoTV box 17. OSD entry takes getting used to and was not really convincing to us in our tests 18. Tweets could be sent effortlessly via the NeoTV box 19. TVMIA offers Spanishlanguage TV channels via the Internet

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6. To register the NeoTV box, the user can manually enter the Internet page into his browser or he can scan the QR code on the TV with a Smartphone or Tablet. 7. System Settings 8. General Settings 9. Audio & Video Settings 10. Unfortunately, we often saw this blended in window with many services that offered movies, TV series,

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20. WKNTV will definitely be popular with Korean NeoTV owners 21. Various CNN content is available to the user 22. Revision3 offers highquality video content of all different kinds 23. The picture quality with Revision3 is exceptional 24. Access to older news broadcasts from Germany's ZDF 25. What's new in MLB? NeoTV has the answer! 26. A round of Black Jack on the NeoTV box to pass the time 27. The games available for download are well-designed 28. Status update via Facebook

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76 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 05-06/2013 www.TELE-audiovision.com

expert
OPINION
Netgear NeoTV TV200 Mediabox RECOMMENDED PRODUCT BY

Thomas Haring Test Center Austria

Indian, Korean and Spanish TV channels that the user can access but still has to pay for. It looks a little better when it comes to news programs; here youll find content from CNN, CNBC, Fox News, the White House, ZDF or the Deutsche Welle. Keep in mind: this is not live TV. You have access to a variety of video clips and prerecorded content from those providers. Controlling all the Apps was enjoyable thanks to the uniform layout. it was actually fun to access all the content. Thanks to the powerful processor and the sufficiently large cache memory, videos were quickly and instantly played back. And its with Revision3, a service that provides high quality video content, where the perfect picture output via HDMI with 1080p resolution makes it all worth it. In todays day and age social networks have become a part of our daily lives. We found it interesting that Netgear obviously did not provide a uniform method, for example, for OSD entries. Each App has its own way of doing it. With Facebook and Twitter the individual letters have to be selected from a vertical column - a painstaking affair if you use longer passwords. Google Picasa on the other hand utilizes a standard OSD keyboard

that displays every available character. The Apps themselves matched our expectations and are a real alternative to Smartphones and Tablets. We missed the ability to playback local content via a Network connection, USB storage device or SD card. Additionally, the number of available Apps is rather poor; the manufacturer tries to disguise this with a clever design and by overstating the number of available Apps. The really exciting top content is unfortunately only available to users in the USA; the rest of the world is left with a mixed assortment of video clips and media content from various providers as well as a few Web TV providers.

+ Visually appealing streaming player with perfect picture output in 1080p full HD. A variety of video services as well as social networks can be viewed directly on your TV. A portion of the Apps are geographically locked out. Local
media content cannot be played back. All in all, only a few Apps are available.

ENERGY
DIAGRAM
Mode Apparent Active Factor Active 11.5 W 6.5 W 0.56 StandBy 5W 2W 0.4

Apparent Power

Active Power

Energy: The first 15 minutes: active operation. The second 15 minutes: standby

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